Beauty is inherently political.

In the piece “Pretty Modern,” Edmund’s makes the reference that an individual’s body is “a work of art” and the surgeon is the “artist,” or “sculptor.” French artist, ORLAN, takes this concept to a more literal scale: she recreates and undergoes plastic surgery procedures as a form of performance art.

In her 1993 piece “Omnipresence,” ORLAN lies on a cot, her face covered in a variety of dashed lines and markings as she waits to undergo surgery. ORLAN’s expression remains rather blank and unamused, even as one surgeon begins the procedure and injects her lips with rather large needles. The process becomes more invasive and gruesome: her face is clamped and tugged at, her eyelids pulled, her cheeks poked at. And after the procedure, ORLAN is left bandaged, bruised, and well, not “beautiful.”

Ironically, these cosmetic procedures that lure women in with the promise of incomparable beauty are incredibly gruesome, invasive, and horrific to watch. ORLAN’s performances act to rawly expose the work that women undergo to transform their bodies into more valued and esteemed sites.

In an interview with ORLAN, years after her cosmetic surgery performance art, she discussed why she chose this as a subject of interest. ORLAN explains that early in her career she was interested in her culture, her identity and ultimately in answering the question “Who am I?”

I find it quite interesting that ORLAN felt a need to change and alter herself just to discover herself. It seems rather counter intuitive. How can someone ever truly know who they are if they continually nip and tuck and pull away at themselves before they have ever even been fully acquainted with themselves? Perhaps, changing one’s body is not the only path to liberation. Maybe, getting to know oneself can act as a more beneficial and less invasive form of self-care.

Women will never be able to truly view themselves as individuals or come to find their own personhood if the plastic surgery trends continue rising. In Professor Lee’s article, she discusses how the rise of plastic surgery, especially in Korea has created a sense of uniformity among women. Therefore, the acts of self-discovery and identity become unattainable. Unfortunately, women will keep trying to find themselves by changing themselves.

Why is it that the quest for self-esteem became synonymous with self-modification. Why can’t self-esteem emerge from the body one already possesses and just an altered mindset? Why does it seem that self-esteem can only be achieved through an alteration of the body?

Our bodies are our own personal works of art, so let’s not depend on surgeons, let’s be our own artists.

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lilaronoff

7 thoughts on “change yourself to “find” yourself?”

Based off of how you describe ORLAN’s Omnipresence I would automatically assume that the piece would be trying to poke (for lack of a better word) fun at the cosmetic surgery industry and those receiving the work. It seems as though an easy take away from Omnipresence would be evaluating how far women will go and are driven to go to alter their appearance and fit into what society is saying is beautiful. It’s interesting to me that instead this piece was how ORLAN found her own identity. I can understand the argument that we all only have a limited time to be on this planet (and as far as we know this might be our only life) and if we feel like our identity should change to make us happy, why not? I think it might serve the person who is looking to change their identity well to evaluate why they feel the need to adopt features that are not their own. For a long time I hated my nose because it’s not skinny like most people, and then I realized I was comparing a feature on my face that I get from my Hispanic heritage and comparing it to the white people around me. I think that self esteem like you mentioned should remain isolated from self modification because I think far too often self esteem is used as an excuse to adopt traits from other cultures (Kylie Jenner, I’m looking at your lips.) and make changes because of the want to be the most beautiful version of everything (while still remaining white) no matter the cost or the pain.

I agree with your question of how can a person truly finds who she really is if she is trying to alter her appearance. It does not make sense to me either. I understand how some young women want to get plastic surgery to look better and to feel more confident, but ORLAN’s justifications just do not make sense for me. I also completely agree with the last question you posted- why do self-esteem have to be related to self-modifications. It is very common in the places and era that we live in to hear our friends and family or even celebrities to complain about their looks. I have witnessed and heard many girls whom I consider as absolutely beautiful complained to me how they want fuller lips and bigger breasts. I have also seen celebrities who disappeared in social media for a long time and reappear with a “new face.” Although plastic surgery does not surprise me, the idea of how all these beautiful girls have “low self-esteem” does surprise me. Therefore, I came to the conclusion that self-esteem has nothing to do with a person’s look. I have watched TV shows of women and men who have distorted face features with low self-esteem and wanted to get plastic surgery, but now that it proves that good looking people have low self-esteem too. I feel like it’s the constant comparison that makes people feel insecure. We live in a society in which we are never satisfied with what we have because we are always looking at what we do not have. Thus I feel like the only way to improve one’s self-esteem is for one to stop comparing himself/herself to other people.

I agree with all you have to say! It’s interesting how self esteem is a concept that is so easily incorporated in a narrative that people can relate to but then gets neutralizing the sensitized all at once . Because of this and the way that society has made us think about self-esteem self-esteem has become speaking but women need unlike beauty which is something that you can obtain. A lot of people not only women feel that self-esteem is the only way that they could achieve their goals in life and if that means altering their body and change who they look like in order to feel better about themselves then that’s what’s going to happen . That fact the ORLAN decided to do a piece where her body was under going such painful procedures and ended up looking “not so beautiful” at the end really makes me think of the healing process of cosmetic surgery. If Cosmetic surgery is really healing a patient’s mind, it is peculiar that patients have to undergo pain before they can actually heal. Her performance was super intriguing and eye opening for letting women know that it takes physical pain to get to where you want your body to look like, not just through surgery but through many beauty works/ exercises.

I think this example is so interesting and it brings up a lot of good points about self-esteem, especially your question of how a person can truly find some sort of self-discovery if they’re constantly changing their appearance. Something strange that we’ve talked about in class and that I’ve noticed in my own experiences is the consistent connection between self-esteem and physical appearance. When people talk of self-esteem and feeling good about themselves it is almost always a discussion of the outward rather than the inward. I know that in many of my own observations and experiences, it is common for others to immediately assume that people who don’t fit conventional, western beauty standards have low self-esteem. And then there’s also this narrative surrounding cosmetic surgeries in that those who choose to undergo them also have low self-esteem because they don’t like their own appearance. In my view, self-discovery is such an internal process and the emphasis on the outward appearance is only a temporary fix that almost promotes others to ignore self-reflection. While appearance is some aspect of “feeling good,” I wonder if there are methods to flip the narrative and make self-esteem – which is, as we’ve discussed, a flawed concept in itself – more about a personal and internal reflection rather than how you feel about your appearance.

This question is one that I am often asking myself, and, simultaneously, guilty of not asking enough, perhaps. Anyone who has known me for long enough should know that I have had just about every haircut under the sun – from long and wavy, to bangs, a bob, a pixie cut, and everything in between. I am also a regular shopper and am continually experimenting with new styles, often under the pretence of self-expression. This question however – of needing to buy, alter, conceal, or correct – in order to self-actualize is a very complicated and existential one and begs the question of whether or not there really even is such a thing as a ‘true self.’ Is who I am inherently tied up in how I look without makeup and in plain, austere clothes, or should I not feel guilty about how much more comfortable and confident I feel when I am in an outfit that resonates with my aesthetic tastes? I think that this is an interesting question in that it is likely far more relatable to women, who are perennially being fed messages about changing their looks, and these messages are often tied up in selling dreams of belonging and metamorphosis as well. Especially in the Instagram age, where having a succinct visual identity has become so valued, women are expected to tell the world who we are by means of our looks, rather than our voices, talents, or other contributions to the world.

This is performance art piece is a fantastic lens through which we can examine the relationship between cosmetic surgery, self-esteem and the self. ORLAN’s piece lays bare the physical and emotional violence we are willing to endure in order to gain beauty, and therefore self-esteem. We watch as the pressure to conform to beauty standards literally rips and tugs at ORLAN’s skin, leaving her bruised and bloody.
An interesting question you raise is, why must people endure the pain and invasion of these physical transformations in order to “find” themselves? I believe it is because outward appearance and inherent value are so inextricably linked in our collective conscious. By looking at someone’s physical appearance, an unconscious process occurs during which you assign inherent values and traits to that person. We have invested so heavily in the connection between appearance and traits such as kindness, morality, and confidence. Therefore, we do not value or credit someone for having made positive changes if we cannot see those changes manifest externally. This narrative makes us believe that the best way to feel more valuable is to look more valuable. For example, fat is associated with laziness, stupidity, self-hatred and so on. And when a fat person loses weight, it is assumed that they have also undergone an inward, emotional transformation. Yet if a fat person, say, goes to therapy and actually undergoes an inward transformation, it is neither valued nor rewarded because there was no “positive” physical change. Thus, we believe the path to self-discovery and self-esteem lies within physical transformations such as cosmetic surgery.

I think that it is quite easy to warp this situation into her being taken advantage of, misled, abused etc. the fact of the matter is that ORLAN made the personal choice to undergo these procedures, whether she made this decision on her own, for performance, or with the surgeon’s advice, it is still a decision that she has made. The dashes and markings on her face are simply necessary in order for the surgeon to remember what he is doing throughout hours of surgery. She is also probably controlling her facial expression in a way to portray the message she wants to the audience. No one is ever going to look beautiful after surgery – people take weeks and months to heal. However, I do agree with the irony of the gruesomeness it takes to achieve more “beauty.” Especially because this one wasn’t really even painful to watch in contrast with rhinoplasty or a facelift. I do not think that getting plastic surgery prevents women from getting to know themselves, especially if they are at a proper age. Women may get to know themselves and realize that the person they are highly values physical appearance and wants to financially invest in their appearance. Some people may even claim that getting plastic surgery enables them to get to know themselves more as they now have the confidence to do things that they never did before. It may seem shallow and sad, but it is the truth of the society that we live in. I am aware that for many people plastic surgery is not going to help their self-esteem as they are going to just keep picking out more flaws they think can be easily fixed with more money, yet again, for some, it does work wonders.

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